Selected quad for the lemma: head_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	body_n	member_n	mystical_a	10,421	5	11.0632	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39923	The restoring of fallen brethren containing the substance of two sermons on Gal. VI, 1, 2 preached at the performance of publick penance by certain criminals on the Lord's-day, usually called mid-Lent Sunday, 1696, in the parish church of Old-Swinford in Worcestershire / by Simon Ford.	Ford, Simon, 1619?-1699.	1697 (1697)	Wing F1498; ESTC R29852	19,489	33

And if they be negligent therein and the Sheep perish through their Default there is a sad Doom pronounced in the Prophet Ezek. 34. 4 5 6. c. very applicable to them To which Obligation of Trust there is also in reference to their particular Charges another of Relation For the Pastors in such a Case are Fathers to their People and they reciprocally to them their Children 2 Cor. 12. 14. Gal. 4. 19. 1 John 2. 2. 4. 4. c. and therefore are they obliged to such Tenderness towards them as obligeth them to take care of them when sick or wounded as Fathers are wont to do towards their natural Children And thus have I shewn you who those spiritual Ones are to whom it belongs to restore fallen and wounded Brethren and withal told you that they are not all to perform it in the same Methods but each sort of them as their station in the Mystical Body of Christ capacitates them thereunto And indeed it is so in the natural Body also according to which the Apostle modules the Regulation of the spirial Body in the chapter before quoted 1 Cor. 12. 27. wherein he tells us that in both there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Members as we read it in particular i. e. each assigned to its particular Office and yet in those distingu●shed Stations and Offices they have or ought to have the same Care one for another v. 25. i. e. alike and joyntly to assist for the good each of other And as to apply it to the present Case if the least Toe in the lowest part the Foot be wounded or pained in any kind every other Member is concerned to assist the Cure the sound Leg offers it self to support the wounded one lifted up by its concurrent Motions and laid on it that it may in the easiest posture be presented to the Eye and Hand to view in what State it is and apply proper Remedies thereunto and the very Head Shoulders Neck Back and Bulk of the Body contract themselves into a narrower Compass to facilitate the Cure so should it be in the mystical Body of Christ every other Member in its proper place ought to do what belongs thereto to assist the Restitution of the Disabled one to its proper Soundness and thereby restore the whole Body to its due State of Integrity And accordingly 1 those of the Spiritualty in the lowest Notion according to our former Partition even the meanest Members of this spiritual Body are as by relation mutual Dealing Acquaintance and freedom of Conversation they have Opportunities offered them to observe what is amiss in each other and by seasonable Admonitions and Reproofs to endeavour the Reformation thereof in a private Way and when that will not do to acquaint others whom the Offenders are more likely to be influenced by of their Misdemeanours and as they see these Endeavours disappointed by obstinate Incorrigibleness and Crimes grow more Scandalous and Infectious to shew their dislike of them by lessening their Intimacies and Familiarities of Conversation with them and last of all to apply themselves to the Officers of the particular Society of Christians to whom they belong that they may in their particular Places and Subordinations use their Power to Reclaim and Reform them 2. And those spiritual Ones in the second Notion before-mentioned who are or are esteemed to be beyond the Community of Christians in Parts and Gifts or by Educaion Quality or Degree capable of doing more Good by their Influence than others are to take all occasional Advantages which Providence offers them especially among their Equals and those who have any more then ordinary Deference for them or Dependance upon them to shame and put out of Countenance bold and daring Impiety or Immorality and especially if to all other Advantages before-mentioned they have any part of legal Authority Annexed to employ that as far as it will extend to those holy Ends and withal rendring their Endeavours in that Kind more Efficacious by their own exemplary Piety and Vertue and lastly by Countenancing and Encouraging those in Ecclesiastical Authority to the utmost of their Power to the doing of their Duty that by their joynt Concurrence the greatest Offenders may as well as the meanest be brought under those due Methods of Cure in reference to their spiritual Distempers 3 And lastly those who by Office in the Church are as I before told you most peculiarly Entituled to the Denomination of spiritual Persons in the Text are when all other Means have been used and prove ineffectual to put the last Hand to this Holy and Charitable Work in their Church-judicatories to call Criminals before them when they come to their Notice by regular Information and Presentment or otherwise to examine their Facts with their particular aggravating or lessening Circumstances and upon full Examination Authoritatively to Admonish and Exhort and Reprove them and finally to pass Judgment and by the Censures of the Church to Prosecute them either to their Amendment by enjoyning them such penitential Acknowledgments of their Crimes as may testifie their Repentance for them satisfie the Church for the Scandal given by them and by the Sorrow and Shame which they have occasioned them to undergo both preserve themselves from relapsing into the same or like Sins and others by their Examples from such Courses and if they shall obstinately refuse such a Salutiferus Penance to proceed to the greater or lesser Excommunication as the Degrees of their Obstinacy deserve And lastly upon their returning to a better Mind in case those Methods through God's Grace reduce them to grant them Absolution in the Name of Christ and his Church and thereby to loosen those they have bound to forgive them restore them to the Communion of the Church and confirm their Love to them in the Sense of those Scripture Expressions used to that purpose Matth. 16 19. 18 18. John 20. 23. 2 Cor. 2. 7 8. c. And thus having shewed you all how far you are concerned in and by what Means and Methods you and all others are to perform your and their Parts in reference to so Christian a Duty I think the most proper use of all this Discourse that we can make is 1. To reflect with holy Grief upon the great Defects in point of Ecclesiastical Discipline ordained by our Saviour for so Great and Holy an End which at this Day all Christian Churches lie under and the great Danger of so many Souls in them for want of sufficient Remedies against the Distempers and Diseases they are exposed to and too often over-run withal There being hardly any Church in the World that since the Cessation of Miracles which kept the World in Awe by the Attestation they gave of the divine Authority backing the Censures of the Church with dreadful Executions of obstinate Offenders ever attained to that intrinsick Power as to be able to stand on its own Legs but has been fain to call in the Civil